With synchro monsters, you have to perfectly balance the ratio of tuners and non-tuners in your main deck, and with fusion monsters you need to draw the exact fusion requirements, and somehow have Polymerization! Yet with XYZ monsters, all you need is two or more monsters of the same level. Put one on top of the other (or in technical jargon, overlay your two materials) and boom – you’ve just got yourself an XYZ monster. So with these monsters being so incredibly easy to summon, it’s no wonder a handful are ludicrously powerful. We’ve covered a lot of other rank XYZ lists before, and in this collection we’ll look into the most powerful rank 5 XYZs in the game.
5. Number 5: Doom Chimera Dragon
While most of the best XYZ monsters made their debut during the Zexal era of Yu-Gi-Oh, this guy is a recent addition to the XYZ card pool – making its way into the TCG during Dark Neostorm. While a 0 attack monster may not sound worth the cost of two level 5 monsters, you’ll notice that Number 5 gets stronger the more XYZ materials it has. If you summon this guy with two level 5 monsters you’re looking at a 2000 attack monster. And if you summon with three, you’re looking at a whopping 3000 attack beast! Plus it comes with a couple effects: During the battle phase, if this card battled, you have two options. You can either target a monster in your graveyard and attach it to this card as an XYZ material, or you can target a card in your opponent’s graveyard and put it on top of their deck. Either way you’ll be beefing this card’s attack stat up – or you can set your opponent up to have a very obvious draw phase. It’s a win-win!
4. Cyber Dragon Nova
While many of us remember Cyber Dragons as the all-powerful fusion summoning deck from Yu-Gi-Oh GX, Cyber Dragons have gone on to absolutely dominate the world of XYZ summoning. Cyber Dragon is a level 5 monster itself, meaning you only need two of them two summon this card. When you do, you can detach an XYZ material from this card to special summon any Cyber Dragon monster in your graveyard – you know, like that Cyber Dragon you just detached? What’s more, if you’re looking to swing in for some serious damage, Cyber Dragon Nova can tribute any other Cyber Dragon monster on your side of the field to gain 2100 attack, effectively combining the power of 2 Cyber Dragons into one. Very efficient.
3. Artifact Durendal
Artifacts are one of the most bizarre archetypes in Yu-Gi-Oh, blurring the line between spells and monsters (well before Pendulums did!) You can set Artifact monsters as spell/traps, with each one gaining different effects when they’re destroyed by your opponent’s card effects. Artifact Durendal is an amazing way of ensuring those effects will trigger, by forcing your opponent’s monster effects to destroy a spell or trap you control. If you’ve got a bad hand (or if you know your opponent has an amazing one), you can also use this to reset both players’ hands, shuffling their hands into their decks and drawing back the same number of cards. Full hand reset. In a format absolutely riddled with hand traps, this is an amazing way of countering, all at the low-low cost of two level 5 monsters.
2. Constellar Pleiades
This guy is a little more specific to summon than most XYZ monsters, requiring two level 5 light monsters to XYZ summon it. This is possible in a whole bunch of decks, most notably Cyber Dragons and Constellars themselves. If you can manage to bring this guy to the field, then you’ve got an amazingly powerful card on your hands. You can detach an XYZ material during either player’s turn to return any card on the field to the owner’s hand. This is practically a Compulsory Evacuation Device that you can access whenever you like, with the added bonus that it doesn’t just remove monsters. And it also has a great attack stat to smack your opponent with afterwards!
1. Number 61: Volcasaurus
Number 61 an incredibly versatile card, requiring only two level 5 monsters to summon (of course). But it’s also one of the best ways you can burn your opponent for some serious damage. Once per turn, by detaching an XYZ material from this card, you can target and destroy a monster your opponent controls. Then you’ll inflict damage equal to that monster’s attack stat right to their life points. Granted, you can’t attack directly with this card on the same turn you activate this effect. But this doesn’t stop you from attacking your opponent’s monsters, or attacking directly with other monsters on your side of field. So Number 61 could be an easy way to finish a game once and for all.
